When the lead character shoots another cop in the face during the pilot episode to cover up his own corruption, you know you're not watching a run-of-the-mill police procedural. A brutal look at life behind the badge, Shawn Ryan's down and dirty drama basks in its protagonist's cavalier approach to right and wrong and a reliance on street justice over the letter of the law. It's to Michael Chiklis' eternal credit that, despite acts of murder, torture, theft, drug distribution and other transgressions too numerous to list, Detective Vic Mackay remains a sympathetic and highly charismatic character - you just wouldn't want to get on his bad side.